Concepts and concept development

Concept Development: A Hilda Taba Teaching Strategy - Links to the first two chapters of a book that discusses Hilda Taba's model and shows a lesson that moves students from facts to generalizations, as the first phase of concept development. The book from which this is taken: Concept Development by Shelagh Gallagher is on order for the Doucette Library.

Lesson examples

Patterns of Change - A unit developed by the Centre for Gifted Education of the College and William and Mary. All of their language arts and social students units provide concrete examples of the use of big concepts.The Patterns of Change unit has students think about cyclical patterns of change in the world, and its appendix has a helpful addition called "The Concept of Change: Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Meaning" (p 319-330).

The search for significant common themes is at the heart of integrated studies. Once established, themes become the rallying point of the curriculum, the place to go when you want to be sure that the pursuit is meaningful and excellent. Themes provide a means for the various contributing disciplines to be different, showcasing their unique properties yet at the same time carrying out a similar conceptual purpose...

Each theme, in order to qualify, must meet several important tests:

1. Is the theme truly conceptual--that is, is it representative of ideas that transcend place and time?

2. Does the theme lend itself to all three knowledge modes-- that is, knowledge received, knowledge discovered, and knowledge constructed?

3. Is the theme fundamentally worth pursuing in each of the separate content areas--that is, social studies, science, arts, humanities, mathematics?

4. Does the theme have the potential to enrich the curriculum and therefore the lives of students and teachers?

...By applying this fourfold test, we can reduce the list to manageable, meaningful proportions...The following themes, however, will do for purposes of illustration. Cause and Effect / Commonality and Diversity / Systems and Patterns / Cycles and Change / Scale and Symmetry / Interaction and Relationships / Time and Space / Equilibrium and Disequilibrium

An online link to chapter 1 of Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe's book "Essential Questions: Opening the Doors to Student Understanding". The full book is available in the Doucette (Call number 371.39 MCE 2013)

from: Pedagogy in Action: the SERC portal for educators
Effective design and implementation of interdisciplinary classroom explorations, regardless of the level or type of class, entails six key steps.

This is a joint project between 10th grade humanities and math/chemistry. This is one of many High Tech High projects, several of which has interdisciplinary components, which you can view at: http://hightechhigh.org/student-work/student-projects

Integrates research based pedagogy with practical steps for students and teachers as they consider how cross-curricular approaches can be implemented in secondary Humanities. See also a similar volume for Science.

This magazine from the American Library Association is a fantastic resources for articles that list fairly current children's literature around themes.Check the periodical shelves in the Doucette library (all issues can be borrowed)